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Federal agents stop business as usual at
White Earth
By Gary Blair
Reports from White Earth say the
presence of federal agents on the reservation has increased and some of
tribal chairman Chip Wadena's supporters are changing canoes.
"What the hell is going on? The
tribal council has stopped talking.
They don't trust anybody anymore,"
were the words of one caller last week.
Security at the "Fallen Star Casino,"
located in Mahnomen, say money is
being flown to New Jersey nightly via
the small airport south of town.
Other changes being considered include the possible closing of the
reservation's casino during the early
morning hours due to a lack of business, and expansion of the
reservation's bingo operation, normally conducted at the Golden Eagle
Lodge adjacent to the casino.
Sources say the operation is scheduled to be expanded and will comprise
eight smaller playing sites located
throughout the reservation. The proposed sites are said to be veterans
clubs, local bars and resort restaurants. The added games will be operated by the casino's management company, Gaming World International,
owned by Angelo Mendura.
Guests attending a recent birthday
part}' at the home of Chip Wadena say
he bragged about having recently purchased a new car for his wife. They say
he also mentioned that he owns a
lumber mill in Canada and that he had
recently hired one of the best criminal
defense attorneys there is (referring to
the present federal criminal investigation now surrounding the tribal
council and the reservation's casino).
PRESS sources say federal agents
recently intervened at a meeting of the
Mahnomen Citv council and advised
the city fathers not to get involved in
any business deals with the White
Earth tribal council. Sources say that
the city council had been hoping to
strike a deal with the tribe to increase
the solvency of some local businesses
who have lost revenues to the casino.
With new developments occurring
weekly on the reservation, the silence
of the local news media makes it apparent they've been bought-off.
Sources say casino advertising has
increased since the scandal involving
the reservation and the casino first
became public.
Additional PRESS sources say the
FBI has also been investigating the
recent death of White Earth enrollee
Richard "Dick" LaGard. They say the
incident may have involved drugs and
a local law enforcement officer.
LaGard died from a gunshot wound
and was found at his home in Mahnomen last October.
Sentencing set, Finn says he won't quit Senate/ pg 1
Federal agents stop business as usual at W.EV pg 1
Lakota youth play major role in Bigfoot Ride '94/ pg 1
Local heroes improve communities/ pg 3
New book by Wub-e-ke-niew available/ pg 6
Voice oftheAnishinabeg (The People)
1
Fifty Cents
Sentencing set, Finn says he won't quit Senate
By Robert Whereatt
Staff Writer
Minneapolis Star Tribune
State Sen. Harold (Skip) Finn insists he does not feel besieged, but
consider:
He awaits sentencing March 3 by a
federal judge who could send him to
prison for a year.
He has to come up with $100,000,
the fine he will pay as part of his
agreement to plead guilty to a charge
of misusing more than $13,000 belonging to the Leech Lake Band of
Chippewa in a phony insurance
scheme.
And Independent-Republican senators last week filed a formal ethics
complaint against him, aiming to kick
him out of the Senate. Some folks
back in his north-central Minnesota
district are mounting a letter-writing
campaign, calling for his resignation.
Finn, a DFLer from Cass Lake, a
member of the Leech Lake band and
former attorney for the tribal council,
is standing pat. He said in an interview Friday that he won't resign from
the Senate now, insisting that the activities to which he pleaded guilty occurred before he entered the Senate
in January 1991.
He said the same thing in a letter to
his Senate colleagues last summer.
"I have not abused my office or the
trust granted to me by the voters," he
wrote.
But IR senators are pushing for his
immediate expulsion, which apparently would make him the first senator ever to be kicked out of the Minnesota Senate. (A House member was
expelled 15 years ago.)
Finn, 46, is in the awkward position of being an institutional embarrassment and a political pawn.
Why can't the Senate wait, at least
until the sentencing in March?
"If we wait, the public could be very
critical of us for not taking appropriate measures for one of our own members," Sen. Dean Johnson, the IR minority leader from Willmar, said last
week.
Several months ago, though,
Johnson acknowledged that IRs covet
Finn's seat.
"The Senate has already begun its
[1996] election cycle," Johnson said
then.
Sen. Roger Moe, the DFL majority
leader from Erskine, puts up a limited defense for Finn. He said Finn
should not be forced out of the legal
action has run its course.
Finn said he hopes he can avoid
prison by paying such a large fine.
"Entering the plea bargain we had
Finn cont'd on pg 3
Ojibwe
News
We Support Equal Opportunity For All People
Founded in 1 988 Volume 6 Issue 29 January 13, 1995
1
A weekly publication.
Copyright, The Ojibwe Mews, 1995
Lakota youth play major role in Bigfoot Ride '94
By Denise Wakefield
Several years ago Birgil Kills
Straight had a vision and a very significant dream—that he saw himself
and others riding on horseback down
the same trail of Chief Bigfoot. This
journey ended in the Wounded Knee
massacre of 1890. The Lakota Sioux
resisted the white soldiers and their
white government up until the
Wounded Knee Massacre.
This year, December 23 - 29, 1994,
seventeen riders, mostly youth, were
led by Arvol Lookinghorse and Sam
Tall, plus several strong youthful leaders, through a 167 mile trek following
their ancestors from Bridger, South
Dakota down to Wounded Knee.
This vigil marked a nine year process which began with Birgil's dream
and vision. The original Bigfoot Ride
was to complete our past and mend the
sacred hoop after 100 years of oppression. Black Elk prophesied that our
pipe would come back after seven
generations.
Today, our culture and heritage is
returning through our seventh generation. Our children have returned to
this way of life.
An elder spoke at the Wounded
Knee gravesite memorial and stated,
"The first four years, up until 1990,
we rode on horseback to remember
and pay tribute to Chief Bigfoot. On
the fifth year, we wiped the tears of our
people, especially the seventh generation. Now, through the Omaka to ka ta
ki ya riders we will ride into the future
with these youth for four years and
prepare ourselves to live a life filled
with peace and our culture intaci. Wc
don't need to live in grief no more. We
can't change our past. We have done
our grieving for 104 years. It is time
we look to the future and support the
Omaka to ka ta ki ya riders."
Arvol Lookinghorse then offered
wasna and chokecherry juice to the
spirits at Wounded Knee. A filled
pipe was offered and the ovate were
fed a meal at Wounded Knee District
School by the Big Road family.
Ride con'td on pg 3
Despite a thin legal case, Bemidji man
heads to trial
By Larry Oakes
Northern Minnesota Corespondent
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Bemidji, Minn. — The Bemidji
woman molested and threatened with
death in her home on June 24 said her
attacker was white.
Roy Martin, the man jailed almost
six months for that crime, is a full-
blooded American Indian. The woman
said the attacker was about 2 5; Martin
was 36. She said the attacker had hair
over his ears, in a kind of shag haircut;
Martin has hair past his shoulders,
normally in a braid.
• No physical evidence connects Martin to the crime, and he has an alibi.
Despite these and several other inconsistencies, authorities in Bemidji intend to put him on trial Tuesday,
because the victim heard his voice in
a store three weeks after the incident
and decided he was the attacker.
She said she's certain, even though
she failed to identify his voice earlier,
when police called him on the phone
and had her listen.
Police and prosecutors defend their
decision to let a jury decide who's
right. But two experienced courtroom
attorneys who reviewed the facts both
said it's extremely rare for a case this
thin to get this far.
"It's very unusual for a case to make
it to trial on voice identification alone,
especially when the physical description doesn't match," said Fred
Friedman, chief public defender in
northeastern Minnesota anda 23-year
veteran of the courtroom.
Said Samuel Thomas, a Detroit attorney in practice since 1970 who
took an interest in Martin's case after
a plea from his wife: "No one should
be tried on facts such as these. This
case wouldn't have withstood a preliminary examination down here."
Here's what happened:
On June 24, a Bemidji woman told
police that a man entered her home
about 5 a.m. while she slept, threatened to kill her, molested her, tried to
rape her and fled with $37 of her
money.
Heeding the attacker's final command, she waited an hour to call 911.
A desk officer advised her to come
downtown when a detective came on
duty at 7 a.m. Police admit that they
lost precious time and the opportunity
to preserve evidence. The desk officer
also should have advised against what
she did next: taking a shower.
A detective said police searched her
home for hair or fingerprints, without
success. The attacker didn't accomplish intercourse, so police didn't have
the woman examined for evidence by
a doctor, even though his hair might
still have clung to her.
Hairs and other bodily evidence can
be typed and classified by DNA and
other characteristics, placing a suspect on the scene in the same way
fingerprints do.
Police, noting that the attacker appeared to have known that the victim' s
Martin cont'd on pg 3
Gorton new chair of panel overseeing
interior departments' budgets
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Sen. Slade
Gorton, R-Wash., a vocal critic of
excessive environmental protection,
today was appointed chairman of the
Senate subcommittee that oversees
the budgets of the Forest Service and
all Interior Department agencies.
Gorton will become chairman of
the Senate Appropriations
subcommittee on the interior, his press
secretary Heidi Kelly said.
Both he and Sen. Patty Murray, D-
Wash., serve on the full
Appropriations Committee. Sen.
Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., is the new
chairman of the full committee.
The National Park Service, Fish
and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land
Management and Bureau of Indian
Affairs are among the Inferior
Department agencies under the
subcommittee's jurisdiction.
Gorton said in a recent interview he
expects the 104th Congress to rewrite
the Endangered Species Act and
strengthen private property rights.
"I think there are going to be major
changes," Gorton said.
"My No. 1 priority will be with the
Endangered Species Act and other
statutes that effectively have the same
impact," he said.
"I fully expect private property
rights legislation to pass," he said.
Gorton was selected by a panel of
Republican leaders in the Senate who
make committee assignments.
Reps. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., and
George Nethercutt, R-Wash., are
members of the House Appropriations
subcommittee on the interior.
Recent meeting of White Earth members discussing issues concerning the future of the reservation.
Wellstone approves $1,000,000 grant to White Earth
By Gary Blair
This week, U.S. Senator Paul Well-
stone announced that the White Earth
Reservation will receive a $ 1,000,000
grant from the U.S. Department of
Housing and (Urban) Development.
The January 11, 1995, faxed press
release reads as follows: U.S. Senator
Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) today announced that the U.S. Department of
Housing has awarded the White Earth
Resen'ation a SI,000,000 grant
through the Family Investment Centers Program. The Reservation Mill
use the funds to develop educational
and employment services for families
living in public and Indian housing.
"It's critical that we cultivate educational and employment opportunities on the White Earth Reservation,"
Wellstone said. "The services funded
through this grant will provide valuable educational and vocational support to White Earth residents. Clearly,
this is a sound investment of federal
resources."
The PRESS was tipped-off to
Wellstone's announcement bv a visit
to another minority newspaper. Calls
made to other media organizations by
the PRESS indicated that the announcement had not been sent to any
major news sources in the Twin Cities. Staff at the Senator's office in
Washington, D.C. say they don'tknow
why more announcements weren't sent
out, but they're sure it was not for
"political reasons."
Staff at the Washington Post newspaper also say they did not receive
Wellstone's announcement and requested a copy.
U.S. Senator Rod Grams' (R-Minn.)
Washington, D.C. office told the
PRESS they also wanted a copy of
Wellstone's announcement as this was
the first they'd heard of the proposed
HUD grant to the reservation.
Wellstone's aide Diana Seeger,
officed in St. Paul, told the PRESS
that she felt the grant would benefit
the White Earth people. When questioned as to why federal authorities
are currently investigating that
reservation's tribal government, she
answered. "I understand that investigation has to do with the casino.
Anyway, federal dollars are moni
tored very closely/' she added.
But government funds are part of the
present investigation at White Earth.
However, Seeger is sure Wellstone's
approval of the grant is not "political."
" Paul tries to get as much money
into Minnesota as he can," she stated.
But when asked if Wellstone was concerned with how that money would be
used, Seeger replied, "Well, he can't
be responsible for everything. You
know, he doesn't have as much power
as you think."
Seeger went on to say that in the
event the current White Earth tribal
council was jailed after the federal
investigation is completed, the HUD
money would be "held until things
were straightened out, or a new council took over."
White Earth activist Lowell
Bellanger says he's very concerned
with Wellstone's approval of the HUD
money at this time. "The only people
who will benefit on this reservation
are Wadena's [brown-nosers]," he
said. "I called Wellstone's office today and all they would tell me was that
I should write him a letter, which I am
going to do."
Attorney's office to help Mn. Reservations
By Laura Baenen
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _Many miles
and a different way of life separate
American Indian crime victims and
witnesses from the seat of justice in
Minneapolis.
Now, residents of the Red Lake and
Bois Forte reservations in northern
Minnesota have an Indian representative of the U.S. attorney's office to
help them bridge the gap.
Joyce Roy's job, which was announced Friday, is to help victims
and witnesses get to court, receive
help and stay informed about their
cases as they proceed to trial.
"That can stretch into months and
the victim is left wondering what's
happening," said Ms. Roy, a member
of the Red Lake band of Ojibwe who
lives in Red Lake.
Her job will involve accompanying
victims and witnesses from the two
reservations to federal court in Minneapolis, explaining the system to
them and just reassuring them.
"Some of these young kids have
never been to the city," she said. "It's
scary for them to go to a big courtroom where they don't see any familiar faces.
"I want to do everything I can to try
and take away some of the trauma."
Ms. Roy, 57, has more than 33
years of law enforcement experience,
most recently as senior criminal investigator in the Bureau of Indian
Affairs and as chief of police of the
BIA police department at Red Lake.
She's seen the system fail too many
times for her people, such as it did for
a young girl who broke down crying
at a rape trial. Ms. Roy said she
thought jurors acquitted the suspect
because they may have felt the girl
was putting on an act.
But she said the victim and her
mother were upset because they didn' t
understand why it took 11 months for
the case to go to trial.
"They felt like the system let them
down because there was no communication between the U.S. attorney's
office, and because there was no communication there was no trust," she
said.
By the time the case went to trial,
"the victim was really passive and shy
and it was very difficult for her.
"I feel if somebody had been in my
position I could have helped her right
away," Ms. Roy said.
Creating the job was U.S. Attorney
David Lillehaug's idea.
\
Ms. Roy's appointment is part of
his office's response to the Red Lake
tribal chairman's request for stepped
up federal prosecution of serious
crimes, Lillehaug said.
Lillehaug said his office needed
someone who speaks Ojibwe and understands the cultural barriers in dealing with the federal justice system in
which few Indians are represented.
"I will tell you that there are several
cases where it would have been very
helpful to have someone on the reservation to encourage victims and witnesses to cooperate with the FBI," he
said.
Lillehaug said he is making plans
to recruit more Indians to work in his
office and is recommending that other
U.S. attorneys hire Indian representatives.
Lillehaug and his predecessor, Tom
Heffelfinger, have made the prosecution of violent crimes on reservations
a priority. Between 1984 and 1988,
23 people were charged with violent
crimes on reservations in Minnesota
and 21 were convicted. Since then, 42
people have been charged and 37
convicted.
"What I've learned as U.S. attorney
is that crime on Indian reservations
has been neglected," he said.